In some ways journalism studies can be seen as both a newcomer and an old hand on the stage of scholarly research. Most observers have argued that scholarly work in the field began in the early 20th century alongside the emergence of journalism as a profession and social force. However, some have found even earlier antecedents. As James Carey (2002) and Hanno Hardt (2002) observed, many of the originating impulses behind research on communication and journalism came from Germany in the mid nineteenth century. As such, the prehistory of journalism studies research can be found in the work of critical German social theorists (Hardt, 2002, P. 1), highlighting the normative impulses which gave the field its founding impetus. Hanno Hardt, in his now-classic work on Social Theories of the Press (2002), traced affinities, continuities and departures between and among early German and American thinkers on the press. Among nineteenth and early 20th century German theorists, he pinpointed the work of Karl Marx, Abert Schaffe, Karl Knies, Karl Bucher, Ferdinand Tonnies and Max Weber as particularly influential in their conceptions of the social place of journalism.
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